Putting Lipstick on a Pig

I’ve heard this phrase since I was a kid.  Ann Richards rode it to her governorship of texas.  Recently it was a weak attempt to paint a future president as sexist.  But this phrase has a fundamental truth to it and a lesson to be learned.

An ugly situation cannot be improved with window dressing.  No one is fooled by such antics and lies eventually catch up and ruin one’s reputation while breaking the trust in a single blow.  Some think they can rake in a lot of money with some smoke and mirrors, but sooner or later people find out that they are being tricked.

I met a guy once, and to be honest I didn’t really want to pay attention to him.  I was just there as an extra ear to help evaluate the offer.  He had a simple plan.  He wanted to ‘ally’ with local businesses to improve their ability to get leads, make money, and purchase materials at a better price by pooling resources.  But the truth was that every business involved has to give up their hard earned business names, transfer ownership – in part at least – to him, and work under him.  He would pay you a wage for this and oversee the operations.

It was a fucking take over con disuguised as a business association.

Well, when he called me (bypassing my client) and told me that he spoke to them and they had agreed to it.  Okay.  He then told me to move their site to his server, forward all their emails to him, and re-brand their site with his information and forward their domain to his. He also asked me to schedule a time with his guys for them to come over and rebrand all of my clients trucks with his branding and give him the business phone account information to my client so he can move the lines.

Yeah Right.

I talked it over with my client and he understood very clearly what was being done and severed all contact this this shady fellow.

Flash forward a few years later, My Client is bidding on a contact worth 120 grand a year against this guy.  My Client won the client because he was honest, open, and transparent about his business while the Shady Fellow was busy presenting himself as the “National Conglomerate” he wasn’t.

Lesson Learned

Don’t make stuff up.  Don’t EVER lie to clients.  They check, they investigate, and they WILL catch you in a lie if you lie.

Related posts:

1. The Dog That Won’t Hunt
2. Got a Big Hat, But No Cattle
3. Three Immediate Steps to take in Improving Your Business
4. July’s Mailbag
5. 5 Things web designers need be wary of
6. Web Designing – “The Customer Always Right” … ?
7. Orb Portals Project : Orb.Phonebook

June 7th, 2009 by DTSL Williams posted in Business |

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